Suara MBE NO. 15, MANAGING BASIC EDUCATION MARCH 2007

Presidents Visit DBE-MBE Activities Final MBE Evaluation In November 2006 after An MBE evaluation team of four people: David Evans, Michael an APEC meeting in Thair, Basri Wello and Rasdi Ekosiswoyo started work in the Hanoi, Vietnam, the US middle of January 2007 to evaluate the implementation and President, George Bush impact of the MBE program, and to make recommendations and his wife, Laura concerning future USAID activities. They visited three districts in made a brief visit to Central Java (Banyumas, Semarang and Pati), three districts in meet the Indonesian East Java (Batu, Malang and Probolinggo), as well as Banda President, Bpk Susilo Aceh and Aceh Besar. They were able to visit both project and Bambang Yudhoyono non-project schools in order to make comparisons, and to hold and his wife, Ibu Ani discussions with stakeholders at both district and school levels. Kristianti. The meeting took place in the presidential palace in Bogor, West Java. On 20 November the US president arrived at the Halim Perdanakusuma airport and was taken by helicopter to Bogor, which was very quiet, because many of the Left: David roads in the town had been closed for the day to guarantee the safety of Evans holding discussions in a the VIPs. Several displays had been setup inside and around the palace by school in the Indonesian government. USAID also held an event to show off its Probolinggo education program in Indonesia. A DBE assisted school, SD Papandayan 1 about the MBE was chosen to create model classrooms in a tent in the Botanical Gardens program in Bogor, next to the palace. Two classrooms where created: a grade 6 room, where a science lesson was organized and a grade 2 room, where reading and writing activities took place. In the grade 2 room there was a They also visited two DBE districts, Kudus and Sidoarjo and held special guest, Elmo, a symbol of the assistance being given by USAID in discussions with DBE personnel at central and regional levels. developing the TV program Sesame Indonesia, which is due to start They were very impressed with what they saw and discovered in broadcasting later in 2007. the field. They reached the conclusion that the MBE program In order to help the was well organized and has had a clear impact in the field on teachers and principal school management, community participation and teaching and of SD Papandayan to learning. You can read a summary of their report on page 20. prepare for the event, several MBE and DBE facilitators came to Bogor. In the classroom MBE Nearing the End of the Road... inside the tent Ibu Tati, The MBE program was due to finish at the end of March the grade 2 teacher 2007, but activities have been extended for three months by was assisted by Ibu USAID, using a remaining amount of funding. The activities Mariaulfah, while the in these three months will include training of district grade 6 teacher, Ibu Rumasti was assisted by Ibu Silvana from Sidoarjo, facilitators from the phase 3 districts and Aceh, as well as a who is also a member of DBE staff. Other MBE facilitators helping the Final Review Meeting and Exhibition in Jakarta during May preparations included Bpk Kadis (Pati) and Ibu Sri Wahjuni (Batu). They involving all 23 partner districts. were coordinated by Bpk Masjudi and Lynne Hill from MBE and Bpk Maskur and Jennifer Rose from DBE. We should like to express our thanks and our best wishes The two presidents and their wives, accompanied by the Minister of for the future to all those who have worked with us on the National Education, Bpk Bambang Subidyo, visited the two classrooms for MBE program. We hope that the benefits of the program will over 40 minutes to watch the lessons and talk with the students, teachers continue to be felt and developed over the long term. and facilitators. You can see some more pictures of the visit by the two presidents on the back page.

In This Edition Photos of the Facilitators from the 23 MBE districts (Pages 12 – 14) Review and Planning Meeting: Stories and pictures from MBE Evaluation: Stories from the field about the MBE final evaluation the meeting which took place in November-December in and a summary of the report (Pages 19 -20) Salatiga (Page 8) Examples of PAKEM Teaching: Stories from the field (Pages 21 – 23) Stories from the Field about MBE activities and Back Page: Pictures of the visit by the Indonesian and US Presidents developments in the districts (Pages 2, 4 -11, 14 -18) and their wives to a DBE-MBE site

1 PATI: Nias Teachers Working in MBE Schools

Many districts outside the MBE areas are interested in taking part in the same sort of activities. Monitoring of the MBE program has shown that MBE districts have been visited by more than 100 districts from outside the program. MBE district facilitators have frequently been invited to train other districts in Kalimantan, Nias, West Sumatera, Maluku and Aceh. 1 2 In December 2006 Save the Children in Nias sent 19 people (2 from the Education Office, 2 Subdistrict Education Office Heads, 5 teachers, 4 school supervisors, 5 school principals and the district coordinator from Save the Children, Nias) to work in four primary schools in Pati. The schools were SD Sonorejo 3 4 and SD Sembaturagung 02 in Jakenan subdistrict and SD Gabus 01 and SD Kuryo- kalangan 02, Gabus subdistrict. 1. Primary school supervisors and teachers from Nias looking at the children's work (Day 1 activities) The program lasted for three 2. Primary school teachers from Nias in discussion with teachers in the schools they were visiting (Sulistyono and days. Haryati teachers from SD Sonorejo) and facilitators (Day 2 activities) On the first day the participants 3. Teachers from Nias doing teaching practice observed lessons and learned 4. Ibu Hotnida (DC Save the Children) having discussions with Pak Rifai Darajat during the visit to SD Pati Kidul 01 about the implementation of (Day 3 activities) school based management (SBM) and the development of community participation until 12.30. This was followed by Then they tried out they modeled their lessons in front of discussions in the schools they were visiting. From 15.00 to 17.00 then were the local facilitators in order to prepare for teaching discussions with the facilitators and staff from the District Education Office in Pati. practice. On the third day they did practical teaching in On the second day they continued the activities of the first as well as making the schools and visited SD Pati Kidul 01 (Winner of the lesson plans, helped by the teachers in the schools they were visiting. Primary School Cluster Competition in Central Java).

MALANG: Legislative and Executive Staff Monitor MBE Program The MBE program has attracted serious attention from the legislature and the executive. As part of the process of strategic decision-making about education, MBE has often been invited to be involved in giving advice. The picture on the right shows the MBE District Coordinator (DC), Bpk Mu’arifin from Malang, together with the Heads of the Local Development Agency and the District Education Office, explaining the strategic program for the district. On 5 February the Education Committee from the Malang District Parliament held a special meeting to evaluate the MBE program (see the picture below right). During the meeting the Bpk Mu’arifin gave a report about the program and its achievements. The meeting of the parliament reached the following conclusions: 1. The MBE program has had a significant effect in increasing the quality of education in the partner schools. 2. The MBE program should be continued especially through dissemination to other schools. 3. The Education Office should be expected to replicate the MBE program even after the project has finished. 4. It is hoped that the district can continue to work with MBE personnel who are based in Malang, even after the end of the project.

2 Review and Planning Meeting in Salatiga All the districts in the MBE program gathered from 30 November to 2 December in Salatiga, Central Java. Each district was represented by members of various agencies including the Local Development Agency, the Education Office, the Religious Affairs Department and Local Parliaments. There were also some representatives of the Education Council (Dewan Pendidikan). Before leaving for Salatiga each district had held a local review meeting. These meetings included a large group of about 50 people from school, subdistrict and 1 district levels. They discussed the successes of the MBE program and the problems they have encountered and then made plans for the future. Several districts gave presentations about these local meetings during the meeting in Salatiga. All the 23 districts have already made plans to continue the MBE program using their own funds. Most have already made funding allocations to support the program. Each of the districts made a display of the MBE program in their area. Photo 1 2 shows the displays from a number of districts in the hotel lobby. Photo 2 shows the display from Central Jakarta, which was situated in the corner of the meeting room. A number of resource persons were invited to tell about their experiences in implementing the MBE program. You can see one of these resource persons in photo 3, Bpk Supanut, the Head of the District Education Office from Probolinggo district, who has pioneered the development of School Based Management (SBM), Community Participation and Active, Creative, Joyful and Effective Learning (PAKEM). He explained the strategy used in Probolinggo to disseminate the program to well over 200 schools. As well as the activities in Salatiga the participants visited MBE schools in the two nearest districts, Semarang and Magelang. One of the schools visited in Amberawa subdistrict was SD Mlilir 2, which is situated in a rural area. Since it joined the MBE program the school has made huge strides in developing SBM, community participation and 4 3 PAKEM. The village head and the school committee are very active. The community has already constructed a large building behind the school, which is used as a teaching and dining area. In photo 4 you can see Bpk M. Tohari Anwar (the Village Head), Ibu Elmi Yahyi (School Principal and MBE Facilitator) and Bpk Jamhari (Head of the School Committee) standing in front of the building. Behind the building there is a shaded area for looking after plants. This has also been made by the community to support the teaching of science. The learning environment in all the classes is excellent. In photo 5 you can see the grade 6 classroom where the class teacher is Ibu Umi Hanifah (in the middle of the picture). Class parents groups have been formed to help the teachers. In photo 6 Ibu Wirantu, a parent can be seen helping a grade 2 student. 5 6 MAGETAN: Blitar Visits Magetan On Saturday 9 December a group from Blitar district visited MBE schools in Magetan. The visitors included all the school principals and supervisors as well as representatives of school committees and the Head of the Subdistrict Education Office from Kedemangan subdistrict. The schools visited were the SDN Magetan complex, SDN Magetan 1 and SDN Selosari. After the visit to schools there was a meeting at SDN Selosari, before the visits took their leave. The meeting was attended by Bpk Drs. Samsudin, MM., Head of the Junior Secondary A picture of the visitors from Blitar on their arrival School Section of the District at the SDN Selosari school complex. They Education Office and Bpk Drs. Siran, enjoyed looking at the displays in the teachers working group (KKG) room. MM., Head of the Magetan Subdistrict Education Office.

3 MALANG: PAKEM Spreads to the University ACEH: Training Early Grades Teaches in the 3Rs Active, Creative, Joyful and Effective Learning (PAKEM) is not a monopoly of To address the problems of children who have difficulty with the primary and junior secondary school, but is already spreading to the reading in the primary school in Aceh, training in teaching universities. The mathematic faculty at the State University of Malang (UM) is reading, writing and number was organized for teachers of one institution that trains mathematics teachers. the early grades classes (classes 1 and 2) in the 40 MBE The courses at the university of are now delivered using PAKEM. This is so that partner schools in Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar. There the students experience for themselves the kind of teaching which they are were 85 participants, consisting of 2 – 3 people per school. going to be using in schools. They don’t just get the theory of how to teach but Besides the MBE schools, the education office from Banda also practice directly in schools. Using PAKEM the students become more Aceh invited five participants from the SD 20 school cluster, creative and develop teaching ideas which can facilitate the students’ learning. which is being assisted by World Vision, to join in the training. In addition to the AUSAID program, ERA (Education Rehabilitation in Aceh Program) also sent fourteen university lecturers to the training.

Above: Discussion is a core student activity during their course. They are discussing various learning theories, scanning the curriculum and developing teaching ideas. Below: Students doing teaching practice using PAKEM District facilitators helping participants make Big Books

This training took place from 5 – 7 March 2007 at SDN 54 Banda Aceh and was run by the early grades district facilitators, supported by national trainers and MBE consultants.

BLITAR: PAKEM Keeps Moving On Dissemination training in PAKEM has already taken place in PROBOLINGGO: Models of the Teachers Working Group 22 subdistricts, covering the whole of Blitar district. On 17 February 2007 the PAKEM training for Udanawu and Wono- Improving the quality of education is dadi subdistricts finished, marking the end of a PAKEM closely correlated with the ability and training safari for the MBE Blitar district facilitators, support- professionalism of the teacher. One ed by second level facilitators trained by the district itself. organisation which enables teachers The cost of training was shared. The implementation of the to communicate with each other is training was mainly paid for by the schools themselves, the teachers working group (KKG while transport for the facilitators was paid for by MBE. Just and MGMP). Effective and enjoyable the first few rounds of PAKEM training were paid for from activities in the KKG and MGMP will the district budget, but only for a limited number of schools. create interest among teachers. Above: Teachers conducting a variety of The participants were chosen from those teachers in the They will be interested in coming to experiments and discussing their various subdistricts in Blitar considered to have good the meetings, if they feel that the effectiveness potential. They introduced the PAKEM virus to the schools problems they face in school are Below: Modeling a lesson is a good way and were then able to convince key people in the subdistrict being addressed by the KKG or to start off a discussion about teaching about the value of the training. As a result, the subdistrict MGMP. and learning education offices ended up clamoring to hold PAKEM In Probolinggo the activities of the training at their own expense. working groups of are varied but all It was a challenge for follow the same pattern: the facilitators to satisfy ‰ Identifying the problems faced by the requests from 22 teachers in class subdistrict offices, as it ‰ Reaching an agreement on the meant leaving their focus of the meetings of the KKG teaching duties for a and MGMP long time. Added to which Blitar district ‰ Reaching an agreement on the pattern of activities to be used to address covers a large area. To the problems that have been identified, for example: modeling lessons, support them a second level of facilitators were chosen. The developing strategies for teaching a topic, etc. original and second level facilitators were integrated and By using this variety of methods and basing the activities on the real needs of then divided into two teams to train the teachers in all the teachers KKG and MGMP meetings in Probolinggo are dynamic and efficient. subdistricts.

4 BANYUMAS: MBE Program District Review Meeting During the PAKEM 3 training the participants were invited to a record The MBE program has been running for two years in Banyumas their reflections about what they had learned in a learning journal, to district. So it was decided to review what had been achieved and map out the competencies in the curriculum and to develop thematic what remains to be achieved, as well as the factors that support or learning plans. hinder the implementation of the program. Banyumas held an MBE A one day follow-up Program District Review Meeting over a period of two days from 13 workshop from the original – 14 November 2006 at the District Education Office with three training of facilitators also levels of participants: local government (Education Office, helped the facilitators Development Agency, Religious Affairs Ministry, Finance consolidate their skills and Department and Parliament); schools (MBE Partner Schools and understanding. This was Facilitators) and the community (School Committees, Education evident during the subse- Council and representatives of Private Schools). quent school training, where the activity is enjoyable and the atom- sphere was relaxed but serious. The involvement of the national trainers in the training was also very helpful especially during discussions, when the participants asked lots of questions about student assessment in the context Top: Ibu Lilik leading activities in the Social Studies group during the PAKEM 3 training of PAKEM. Above: Local government An additional session was participants determining the Above: Bpk Susanto (a national trainer) included in the training, topics to be discussed on helping the participants map student compe- the second day of the tencies in the Bahasa Indonesia group. where each subject group review meeting. Below: Bpk Farid Setiawan (Social Studies made an exhibition, which facilitator) explaining the mapping of the was then visited by partici- Left: School principals and competencies which was displayed in the pants from the other subj- teachers from MBE schools exhibition of work drawing up action plans for ect groups. The partici- implementing PAKEM pants found this very beneficial.

The first day was taken up with discussions among local At the end of the training government participants to determine the topics to be discussed on each of the participants the second day. The discussions were preceded by a visit to MBE made follow-up action schools in order to inform the subsequent discussions. The plans, which were then conclusions of the review meeting were as follows: discussed with the other teachers from their schools 1. Recommendations for the MBE program in Banyumas who had been taking part in 2. Follow-up action plans for the MBE program in Banyumas up to different subject groups. 31 March 2007 These plans were then given to the school principal, the facilitators and 3. Follow-up action plans for the MBE program in Banyumas after schools supervisors. 31 March 2007 MALANG: Religion Teachers Using PAKEM too MAGELANG: PAKEM 3 Training in Magelang Although Islamic religion teaching is not covered by the MBE program, From 17 – 19 and 22 – 24 January 2007 MBE and the District religion teachers don’t want to be left behind. MBE facilitators were Education Office organized jointly PAKEM 3 training as part of the invited to a religion teachers working group meeting to explain about series of training activities (following on from training in PAKEM 1 PAKEM. and 2). The picture on the right The training was conducted during the end of semester holiday. shows the enthusiasm of The 20 MBE partner schools and five non MBE schools, which had the Islamic religion teachers taken part in the previous PAKEM training, took part in this training. learning about PAKEM to make sure they really The participants found the PAKEM 3 training quite difficult but at understand and master it. the same time very relevant and challenging. This was because the Before implementing it material in the training was enjoyable and challenged them think. with the students, the Besides this, the most notable outcome was that the training religion teachers tried it helped schools draw up their school syllabuses (curriculum). The out among themselves. participants learned how to develop these syllabuses.

5 MAGETAN: SD Magetan Complex School Becomes an community participation and PAKEM in Maospati subdistrict. International Standard School The participants included the teachers of private and public primary schools in the subdistrict other than those being The Education Office in Magetan district made a proposal to the Provincial assisted directly by MBE. The training took place over a period Education Office in East Java that three primary schools in the district should of three days from 16 – 18 November 2006 at SDN Kraton 4. have their status raised. These were SDN Magetan 1, SDN Selosari The training in Magetan subdistrict took place from 22 – 24 Complex, and SDN Magetan Complex. All three are MBE partner schools. January 2007 at SDN Selosari Complex. They were proposed to become national standard schools. As a result of the evaluation by the team from the Provincial Education Office SDN Magetan Complex was raised to the status of international standard school, while SDN Magetan 1 and SDN Selosari Complex were given the status of national standard schools. The staff of the schools got busy to prepare each of the schools for the evaluation. The preparations involved the management, teaching staff and other stakeholders. Aspects of school management to be prepared for assessment included the organization of the students, the curriculum, buildings and equipment and community relations. For the teaching staff, preparations included lesson preparation, preparing teaching aids and the appropriate choice of learning resources. Community participation included the role of the community as a Ibu Sri Winarsih, a district facilitator for the early grades and Ibu partner and supervisor, as well as efforts to develop cooperation with Niken Enggarwulan, and an SBM facilitator, helping the early business and industry. grades training group

BLITAR: Children’s Reflections Used for Assessment 1. Grade 5 children enjoy making After they have finished a lesson, their observations in even the children restructure their knowledge hot sunshine. This is an in the light of what they have just example of the teaching at learned. This may mean that they SDN Magetan Complex. 1 enrich the knowledge they already They are observing the energy of the sun using a bowl to have or they may revise their focus light from the sun. thinking. Children need to be invited 2. Inside a grade 4 class at SDN to reflect on what they have learned. Magetan 1. Classroom This is so that they can really make display includes a knowledge full use of the new knowledge they tree with displays of children’s have gained. Then the students will work as a mark of also feel an awareness that they have learned and mastered appreciation. The tree was something new. made by the parents group. 2 3. Inside a grade 2 class at SDN Students can be invited to reflect on what they have learned, Magetan 1. The children are after they have mastered the new competency, at the end of a taking part in a health learning theme, or at the end of a semester or school year. education lesson given by Dr There are many benefits. As well as being beneficial for the Dyana Etikawati, who is acting students, as outlined above, the reflections can also be useful as a resource person. Dr for the teacher. From the students’ reflections the teacher can Dyana Etikawati is the parent of a grade 2 student, a doctor obtain information in many areas, including level of mastery of by profession and organizer of a competency and the stu- the grade 2 parents group. 3 dent’s feelings, impresssions, 4. Children enjoying reading advice and expectations. The books in the reading corner. teacher can use this data to Children are encouraged to do evaluate the learning that has this during break times or taken place. before school starts at SDN Selosari Complex. On the right you can see an example of a reflection written by a grade 8F student at 4 SMPN 1 Wlingi at the end of the first semester in the MAGETAN: Continuing Dissemination to Non-Project Schools 2006/2007 school year, concerning what they have The PAKEM training program has been disseminated to teachers of all learned in Bahasa Indonesia. private and public primary schools in Maospati and Magetan subdistricts. Magetan district has made training program for SBM, community participation By Drs. Slamet Prihatin, SMPN 1 Wlingi, Blitar and PAKEM training. More than 200 people have been trained in SBM, 6 PURBALINGGA: Community Participation in a Remote The District Education School Office has decided to Schools in remote areas often develop multigrade tea- face problems in making pro- ching in these remote gress. Besides rarely being schools. First of all a monitored by the education meeting was held in Nganjuk district to ex- Above: Pak Budi with the Head of the office because they are so far Education Office from Pacitan district away, the support and interest plain about multigrade schools. Two speakers Below: Teachers from Nganjuk of the community is also enthusiastically asking questions of teachers normally low. were invited from Paci- at a multigrade school in Pacitan tan and Batu districts But this is not the case at SDN respectively, Pak Jarno 1 Jambudesa in Karanganyar Above: Bpk Rusmadi, the School from Pacitan and Ibu Ina subdistrict, which is situated in Principal, accompanied by Bpk from Batu, who gave ex- a mountainous area far from Muntohar, treasurer of the School cellent explanations a- the town. Since becoming an Committee in front of the prayer bout multigrade schools. room (Mushola) at SDN 1 MBE partner school, this As a result the partici- school, under the leadership of Jambudesa during its construction Below: The Head of Jambudesa pants in the meeting the school principal, Bpk Rus- were very enthusiastic. madi has gradually improved Village (wearing a green shirt) together with Bpk Rusmadi and the the school management. At first In order to increase their class parents groups visiting the understanding about Bpk Rusmadi found it difficult to ki d t hi h t t d i get the parents to help the multigrade schools, the District Education Office invited school school. principals, teachers and school supervisors from remote schools to visit multigrade schools in Pacitan Then the school committee. the principal and the staff took the Following this visit, several teachers, school principals and initiative to have a meeting with supervisors from Nganjuk took part in multigrade teacher training the parents, community mem- organized by MBE. bers and religious leaders. The principals and teachers in the remote schools in Nganjuk hope Several ideas emerged from very much that they can all receive training to learn about multigrade the meeting about how to make SDN 1 Jambudesa competitive with teaching methods. the favorite schools in the district. After the meeting they drew up a scale of priorities for action in line with local capacity. PASURUAN: Justice at MTs Nurul Islam Two programs have already been completed by the school committee An interesting activity took place at MTs Nurul Islam, during a visit by to improve the school facilities in the line with the wishes of the the district facilitators. This was during a social studies lesson in community: class 3a. The teacher’s name was Gus Hidayaturrohman and he was trying to link theory to reality as a result of an incident which had 1. A prayer room has been built in the school at a cost of about Rp.17.5 occurred, involving the loss of a hand phone owned by a grade 3a million, using funds provided entirely by the community. student. The activities were very interesting. Students acted as chief 2. A kindergarten has been built in for the children in the area, who are judge and two assistant judges, public prosecutor, defense counsel, too young to enter the primary school. Before this the children had to clerk and witnesses. The student, who was suspected of taking the go about 2km, if they wished to attend kindergarten. At the moment handphone, was the defendant. the kindergarten at Jambudesa is using the village hall, which is situated on the same site as the school. The wages of the teachers According to Ibu Rustina, the activities like this help the children in the kindergarten are paid by voluntary contributions from the understand the judicial processes in a court of law. The teacher community. Children graduating from the kindergarten can enter does not need to explain the roles of those involved in the trial. They directly SDN 1 Jambudesa. can experience it at first hand. So now the facilities at SDN 1 Jambudesa are as good as those in the schools in the town.

NGANJUK: Learning about Multigrade Schools in Pacitan Nganjuk district has many remote schools with few students. The geographical location of the district is unusual. In the south there is a mountainous area, while in the north there is a dry area covered in a teak forest. This makes it difficult for students to travel out of the area where they live to attend school. They are forced to go to school near their homes, even though the conditions in the schools are often very poor. The schools cannot be shut, even though the number of students in many of them is very small and they are very remote. Students as chief judge and assistant judges explaining the judicial process to the defendant

7 BANYUWANGI: School and Community United TRENGGALEK: Dissemination of PAKEM Increasing With the introduction of school level syllabuses and various government MBE aims to empower the community to help schools and at the policies and rules in the field of education, increasing numbers of teachers same time open schools to the community. In this way schools agree that teaching methods involving PAKEM are most appropriate to can adapt to the aspirations and needs of the community and meet the demands of the future, as set out by the government. Many become responsible for serving the whole community, including teachers who previously strongly rejected PAKEM (because they didn’t the students and parents. want to be bothered or were pessimists) are now looking to PAKEM to satisfy the demands of the education laws and the professional and The school is hidden in a densely populated part of town but has certification needs of teachers. This is reflected in the increasing number until recently not encouraged the community to get involved in of requests from subdistricts to be trained by MBE in PAKEM and the the school. The community felt for the previous ten years that SD increasing numbers of participants in PAKEM training in dissemination Temenggungan had been dormant without any activities, subdistricts. achievements and students of which they can be proud. How- ever, since the middle of 2005, when the school principal and The third round of PAKEM training for MBE schools in Trenggalek from 1 – teachers invited and encouraged the community to work together 7 February 2007 was followed up two weeks later from 19 – 24 February to improve the schools, results have gradually begun to show. with PAKEM training for non MBE subdistricts, Durenan (at SDN 3 Driven by the Head of Temenggungan Village, Bpk Drs. Sutijana Ngadisuko) and Karangan (at SDN 1 Buluagung). The training was and the Head of Village Council Bpk Andi Supriyadi and planned for 22 schools and 125 participants per subdistrict, but the supported enthusiastically by a former student Bpk H. Bambang enthusiasm of teachers and schools inflated the number of participants. In S. Urip and the Head of the School Committee, Bpk Sentot Durenan the numbers were increased to 27 schools and more than 150 Hariyanto they have been successful in gaining the assistance of participants, while in Karangan there were even more, 35 schools with 245 local business people to provide books for the teachers and participants including school principals and teachers from conventional sports shirts for the students, most of whom come from poor and religious primary and junior secondary schools (SD/MI/SMP/MTs). backgrounds. What is more, Temenggungan, which is situated in Banyunwangi district, is known as a center of the arts, as a With the spread of PAKEM, Trenggalek Local Government, and more variety of arts are practiced there as well as many sports. Now particularly the District Education Office, is having to consider the many prominent artists and sportsmen have volunteered to train formation of a team of facilitators in each subdistrict (in some cases two the students without being paid. subdistricts working together) and giving training to these facilitators to Another notable event from the school year 2006/2007 was when enable them to carry out their job. This is a reminder of the large area the school, which has 74 students, was offered free courses at covered by Trenggalek district and of the number of subdistricts, which is ‘DIO COMPUTER’for students in grades 4, 5 and 6, as well as for greater in number than the twelve MBE district facilitators. As well as the teachers. Former students also managed to obtain a giving training, these twelve facilitators also have duties in their own computer to support the school administration. The target for offices and schools. 2007/2008 is to have in-school computer activities for the students at SDN Temenggungan. Besides extracurricular activities, the everyday teaching and learning activities have also received assistance from the community. For example, a Batik Center, Gajah Oling Banyuwangi, which is located near the school, has been teaching the students to do batik.

1 2

3 4 Bpk. H. Bambang S. Urip (former student), Bpk. Sentot (School Committee) dan Ibu Barorotin (School principal ) working 1. The Head of the MBE team in Trenggalek, Drs. Gandhi Priyadi speaking at together with great enthusiasm to develop the school the opening of PAKEM 3 training for the MBE schools. 2. School supervisors in Karangan subdistrict actively participating in the To evaluate progress, the school and the community (including PAKEM dissemination training many different sections of the village) make routine three monthly 3. A special class for school principals being led by one of the facilitators, Ibu visits to the school. The aims of these visits are to draw up a prog- Dyah during the MBE dissemination training in Durenan on ‘The Role of the ram of assistance, to evaluate their successes and find solutions to School Principals in Supporting PAKEM teaching’ problems faced by the school. The results of the evaluation are 4. One of the facilitators in the science class, Bpk Aznan during the PAKEM presented in form of a report entitled ‘Evaluation of the Working training in Durenan Program of SDN Temenggungan Building for Tomorrow’.

8 MADIUN: Using Questionnaires and Advice Boxes for PURBALINGGA: Parliament Visits MBE Schools Communication Following the MBE District Review Meeting in Purbalingga on 16 It is important that schools maintain lines of November 2006, members of the local parliament made a communication with students and parents. Now working visit to all the MBE partner schools in the district that schools have been given operational funding between 7 and 9 January 2007. The members of the parliament, by the government in the form of the BOS, many led by Bpk Mustangin Ketua, the Head of the Education schools have difficulties in communicating with the Committee, accompanied by the Head of the Purbalingga parents through meetings with the committee, as District Education Office, were able to witness directly the was previously done, because funding from the progress achieved by the MBE schools in the areas of BOS cannot be used for this purpose. Schools in management, teaching and Madiun have also been forbidden to require the learning and community parti- community to make financial contributions. So cipation. schools have had to think of ways of maintaining communications with parents. At SMPN Madiun they have done this using questionnaires and In the MBE schools the advice boxes. parliament members asked questions of the students, 1. Questionnaires to Change the School Budget teachers and members of the The organizers of the school committee had the idea of sending out a letter parents group about various and questionnaire together with a draft of the school budget, because the aspects of MBE. In general the school was unable to hold a parents’ meeting with the committee. The parliament members were very documents included: satisfied with the progress ‰ A financial report for the school year 2005/ 2006 made by the MBE schools. The Head of the Education Com- ‰ A work program for the year 2006/ 2007 They also promised to follow mittee, Drs Mustangin surprised up on the conclusions and re- by the quality of the students’ ‰ The main points included in the documents were: commendations of the District work at SDN 2 Purbalingga Lor. ‰ An expression of thanks and a request for forgiveness Review Meeting. ‰ A sheet to be filled in agreeing to voluntary contributions to the school committee of up to Rp. 25,000.- NGANJUK: Facilitators Definitely Belong to the ‰ A request for advice and inputs on how to raise the quality of education Community and District in school The role of the District Facilitators, which was restricted at the After the answers to the questions were collated, discussions took place start to helping only the MBE partner schools, has now become between the school and much wider. This is shown by their involvement in various the school committee to educational activities in Nganjuk District. The activities are change the school organized by the education office in Nganjuk, which recognizes budget. The budget was that the facilitators are a valuable asset and belong to the confirmed and then dis- district. Teacher professional development activities organized played on a special recently by the Head of the Junior Secondary Schools Section of School Committee Infor- the Education Office is one example of their use. mation notice board. The facilitators were involved, So far SMPN 6 Madiun has already made two together with the MGMP instruct- revisions to the school Meeting of the School Committee and the school tors, in running the activities. Other budget, partly to incur- with everyone hard at work! activities include training in SBM, porate increases in BOS community participation and funding in January 2007. PAKEM for ten subdistricts, using funds from the Education Office 2. An Advice Box to Improve Teacher Performance district budget and training for An advice box has been set up at the main entrance to SMPN 6 Madiun. teachers in PAKEM organized by Advice or complaints received in this box are used by the school principal the Nganjuk District Personnel as feedback to the teachers during teachers working group (MGMP) Office. Several facilitators have meetings at the school. Using this advice box, the activities of the school even been involved in activities to Pak Hari Sudradjat can be monitored and complaints from the students can be dealt with introduce PAKEM in subdistricts explaining about PAKEM quickly. other than those assisted by MBE Several times the school principal has been able to give timely advice to and have also become instructors in school syllabus teachers as a result of information received through the advice box. Usually development training, organized by subdistrict education offices. after the information from the advice box has been read by the school Another small example occurred when a number of facilitators principal together with the teaching staff, they check and recheck to make were selected to become members of juries to judge various sure problems have been dealt with. In this way all points of view are taken competitions in connection with National Children’s Day. Let us into account when dealing with problems and a just solution is reached for hope that this valuable support, especially from the District all parties. Education Office, will continue, even though the MBE program in By SA Winarno, MBE Facilitator and School Principal of SMPN 6 Nganjuk is due to finish soon. Madiun

9 PURWOREJO: Reflections at the End of the MBE In the area of PAKEM: 1. Teachers are more creative and prepare their Program lessons better. 2. The organization of the students in their lessons is more flexible. 3. There is increased use of school libraries and reading corners. 4. The Managing Basic Education Program has been running in The environment is used as a learning resource. 5. Teachers use more Purworejo district for about eighteen months, not even two learning aids. 6. Children are more active and creative and more confident to years. The time has been very short for changes to happen express their own ideas 7. Children’s learning is more effective and either at school or district levels. However, in reality changes enjoyable. 8. Displays of children’s work have a positive impact on children’s involving the adoption of better practices have become evident learning and parents’ attitudes to their children’s education. in the MBE partner schools. Besides this the MBE program has already spread to other schools, who have used their own funds or funds from the 2006 district budget to run training. Changes which have occurred especially in the MBE partner schools include:

1 2

1 2

3 4

1. The students at SMPN 13 Purworejo discussing population data at the Village 3 4 Head’s Office in Katerban 2. The students at SMPN 5 Purworejo enjoying learning biology 1. The Principal of SMP PGRI Butuh (Bpk Hamdi Asrori) – even 3. Bpk Edy Setyanto, a teacher at SMPN 14 Purworejo, making a lesson plan though his school is a simple private school, the MBE program helped by English language facilitator, Ibu Suharti, S.Pd has had a big impact. Everyone in the school supports it. 4. Ibu Ani from MI Imam Puro Lubangindangan going round the classroom 2. The integrated school budget at SMPN 14 Purworejo is helping students with any difficulties they encounter displayed on a large board for everyone to see. 3. Community participation at SDN Wonorejo Kulon is not In the area of District Education Management: 1. Education planning takes confined to physical and financial assistance, but also offers place in stages based on data, using the principles of planning, learned during assistance with teaching. As well as being guest speakers in workshops on education data and planning organized by MBE. 2. The concept lessons, the parents group is also active in class. You can see of formula funding focused on allocating funding assistance for schools Ibu Suhartati (the School Principal) teaching grade 1 assisted by equitably and proportionally has been applied in the form of school assistance a parent, in place of Ibu Sumarsih an MBE fasilitator, who is out for all schools in Puworejo district. The district allocated Rp.9.75 billion for helping teachers in another school. 2006 to cover all schools (including private schools). This was a significant 4. Community participation in SDN Lubangkidul in Butuh district, increase compared to 2005, the community is helping to repair the building. SDN Lubangkidul when the allocation was only has also been given land by the community to extend the school Rp.4.5 billion. 3. The district building. It has also received two computers from the community. has calculated the unit cost of educating a single student. In the areas of School Based Management (SBM) and These calculations were done Community Participation: 1. The School Development Plan involving representatives of all and Budget have been drawn up jointly with the community and education stakeholders in order displayed publicly. 2. There is a sense of belonging and mutual to discover whether the school support between the school and the community, with the result operational founding (BOS) that the accountability of the school has risen. 3. The staff of being distributed by central Members of the district MBE team (Bpk the school have become more motivated to work to improve government to schools is suffi- cient to cover schools’ basic Fatnani from the Education Commission of the quality. 4. The democratic processes surrounding the school Local Parliament, Bpk Kasito from the needs or not. The result: have increased the trust of the community in the school. 5. Education Council, Bpk Agus Suyoko from the Primary Schools need Rp. Besides its increasing role in the school committee, the Local Development Agency, Ibu Kanti from the 26,800 - per student per month, community has increased its role in improving the school District Education Office and Bpk Achadi from while junior Secondary Schools the Religious Affairs Department) making environment and supporting the children’s learning through the need Rp. 40,200 - per student follow up plans in the area of district manage- formation of a parents group. Many parents are now involved in per month. This is only a ment to support the development of the MBE the teaching and learning processes and in extracurricular minimum for operational program after March 2007. This includes a activities. funding. replication program running till 2009.

10 Spreading the MBE Program: In Purworejo district MBE has PURBALINGGA: Education Office Head Joins in Training already been disseminated to 71 schools. In most cases This has probably only happened in Purbalingga, because usually the schools have used their own of funding for this. Twenty two District Education Office Head has a very busy program. But the Head of the primary and junior secondary schools used funding from the Education Office in Purbalingga, Bpk Drs. Suytino is different. He wants to district budget, which was allocated for the replication of the keep up with the Head of the Primary Education Section, Bpk Sumojo, SPd MBE program. The district government allocated funds for who is always actively involved in MBE activities. Bpk Suyitno accompanied replication in two subdistricts, Purworejo and Loano. Activities by Bpk Sumojo and several Junior Secondary School Supervisors took an included SBM, Community Participation and PAKEM training. active part in the curriculum scanning section of the PAKEM 3 training, Schools were also invited to visit MBE program partner schools which took place in Purbalingga from 16 – 21 January 2007. Bpk Suyitno in Kutoarjo and Butuh subdistricts. The district review meeting joined in the group discussions and made suggestions to the participants. recommended allocating funds from the district budget to Although he only took part in the training for one day in each of the MBE support the spread of the MBE program right through to 2009. partner subdistricts, his participation in the PAKEM 3 training served to motivate the participants. This was evident when, at the end of the session, BANYUMAS: Teaching in Ambang as the Project many participants suggested that the facilitators should follow up the Nears it End PAKEM 3 training by giving mentoring to teachers in class in order to improve their teaching. What comments do teachers from the partner schools make, when asked about their impressions of MBE? They are very grateful for what MBE has given them. The training they have received is really useful. They feel this even more with the introduction by the government of the new curriculum, which Above left: Bpk Somojo, SPd, Head requires teachers to use PAKEM. The teachers in the MBE of Primary Education (standing in schools are already familiar with PAKEM teaching methods. the brown suit) having discussions with the MBE facilitators from Purbalingga during preparations for PAKEM 3 training. Left: The Head of the Purbalingga District Education Office, Bpk Drs Suyitno (in the black suit and hat) accompanied by Bpk Somojo, SPd having discussions with the group of participants in the PAKEM 3 training in Karanganyar subdistrict. Below left: Bpk Drs Suyitno having a lively discussion about scanning the curriculum with the participants in the PAKEM 3 training in The students are the same. They are already used to having Purbalingga district. He is group discussions with their friends and to being actively accompanied by Drs M. Nurhadi, MM., the Head of the Subdistrict involved in lessons. The schools hope that local government Education Office. can continue this program by continuing to hold training. The teachers in the MBE partner schools still feel that they need more training to support their development.

SEMARANG: Community Participation Increasing in the SMP BANYUMAS: SMPN 3 Ajibarang Excels in Competition At the present time when free schooling SMPN 3 Ajibarang, one has become an important issue, many of the MBE partner schools complain that financial schools in Ajibarang sub- contributions from the community have district represented Ban- fallen dramatically. But this has not yumas district in an happened at SMPN 1 Amberawa. The Education Excellence level of community participation in this Competition at provincial level on 15 December school is very high. As an indication of 2006. Previously the this, the community has provided both a Language and a school had qualified from Computer Laboratory. Besides this, several months ago the The evaluation team visiting SMPN 3 Ajibarang. the district level community made contributions in order to buy +360m2 of land competition based on in order to expand the school. As planned, the land is being several positive indicators in the school, including: the seating arrangement used to build Social Studies and Mathematics of the students is varied; there are display boards in the classrooms and Rooms/Laboratories. Laboratories such as this are rare in there are wall magazines displayed around the school. PAKEM teaching Semarang district. which is being implemented in the school was the main focus of attention of Above right: Bpk Antonius Soeprapto, the School Principal, in the competition jury. This is all a result of MBE interventions, which are front of the Social Studies and Mathematics Laboratories, being applied consistently by the teachers and other schools stakeholders. which are 90% complete. Bu Ngatminah, S.Pd, Teacher at SMPN 3 Ajibarang, Banyumas and Bahasa Indonesia Facilitator

11 East Java District Facilitators

BANYUWANGI SITUBONDO

PASURUAN BATU

NGANJUK PACITAN

MALANG BLITAR

PROBOLINGGO TRENGGALEK

12

MADIUN MAGETAN

Central Java District Facilitators

KEBUMEN SEMARANG

PURBALINGGA PURWOREJO

BANYUMAS MAGELANG

PATI SUKOHARJO

13

Aceh District Facilitators

BANDA ACEH ACEH BESAR

C. Jakarta District Facilitators District Facilitators - the Engine of Progress

Photographs of the teams of facilitators from all the MBE

districts are included on the center pages of this edition. The teams were chosen from teachers, school principals and supervisors. They have been trained 3 or 4 times to carry out school training in School Based Management (SBM), Community Participation and PAKEM. As well as training the teachers and other stakeholders, they also do mentoring with

the teachers in class to help them develop good lessons. As well as supporting the MBE partner schools, they have

also developed a similar program in other schools in the district. Some of them have also been invited to train schools in other districts, even in non MBE districts in Kalimantan, JAKARTA Nias, Maluku, Aceh and West Sumatera.

KEBUMEN: School Committee Plays a Prominent Role Over the past two years the role of the SDN 2 Wonokriyo Gombong school committee has increased considerably. Their sense of responsibility and ownership of their schools is a very high and there is no longer an invisible dividing wall between the school and the community. This is shown by various activities which they now undertake. School committee members have been teaching computers regularly, making proposals for new classrooms, standing in for teachers who are attending meetings, in drawing up the school budget, running extracurricular activities and finally organizin g and teaching students to carry out their prayers. This is t he result of knowledge gained from MBE being applied in the field. Compact, transparent and professional has become the motto of SDN 2 Wonokriyo Gombong, as it makes progress. The program of school activities has been drawn up together with the committee, teachers, community H. Salimun S.Ag, a Primary School Supervisor giving a traditional members and other stakeholders and become part of the school dish to the principal of SDN 2 Wonokriyo, watched by the Village development plan, which supports the school’s vision a nd mission Head and Head of the School Committee during the annual statements. Three things have taken place at SDN 2 Wonokriyo which has reporting meeting with the parents of the school. increased the confidence of stakeholders in the school. The school principal “I would like to ask permission to pay Rp.100,000.- each made a report at a plenary meeting to discuss the school budget on 18 month to support the 19 poor children in the school. I will make September 2006, which was well received by those present. Among the the payments on the tenth of every month. Thank you.” stakeholders invited was the family of Bpk Triyogo, a member of the community who is also a successful businessman. He offered to donate 59 We’re very proud and happy about Bpk Tukiman’s concern, copies of an Islamic holy book for the children to read in the m ornings, as even though he does not have any children or relations at part of the program to increase the children’s religious awareness. SDN 2 Wonokriyo. We have also used his garments making business as a learning resource. We would like to convey our There was also Bpk Tukiman, who has a garment making business but doe s gratitude to all stakeholders who support our school program, not have a child at SDN 2 Wonokriyo. After he was given a slip of paper on we hope for a better tomorrow. which to write his reflections about the work of the school, he wrote the following: By Kresniwiyati School Principal of SDN 2 Wonokriyo, Gombong

14 SEMARANG: MBE Full of Meaning for Our School School in the Forest with Metropolitan Level of It does not feel as if a school, SD Mlilir 2, Amberawa Achievement has already been in the MBE program for almost There are several achievements to be celebrated in partner twenty months. We have spent the time working hard schools as a result of the MBE program in Semarang district. to make changes. Starting from the trust which was The MBE schools have been much heard of in other placed in us as an MBE partner school, we have never subdistricts and even other districts. stopped learning. We have tried to apply the pattern of As an example of this on 13 December 2006 one of the largest SBM, Community Participation and PAKEM developed daily newspapers in Central Java, ‘Suara Merdeka’ published under MBE. Together we have made progress in an article about a school on the edge of the rubber plantation, several ways, including: which is one of the MBE partner schools. The school was SDN ‰ increasing the role of the school committee Wonorejo 2 in Pringapus subdistrict. ‰ involving the community which had lost interest in the school Following this report people from many areas wanted to find ‰ organizing the study visits for the teachers to raise their awareness out about the teaching methods used in the school. On 15 Supported by these three factors, we managed to draw up together a school February 2007 SDN Wonorejo 2 received a study visit from development plan and budget. After this with we made short-term and long- Grobogan district. During the visit term programs. they were very interested in the approaches adopted under MBE The growing enthusiasm of the community really took off when the school and even asked how their district sent representatives of the school committee to the first round of SBM and could get assistance from MBE. Community Participation training organized by MBE. When they returned Well done, SDN Wonorejo 2. from the training they realized the importance of the committee and of Success! community participation. Following up on this the school held a parents’ meeting, to which they also invited the Head of the Subdistrict Education Office and a representative of MBE. On that day the parents group was formed. At the start the group did not know what they were going to do. Then they drew up a program of activities including a schedule of parents to help the teachers in class each day. One idea from the school principal which was well received by the community was for parents to make regular contributions of Rp.500.- per week or Rp.100.- per day per student. Using this money the school has already built a covered learning area measuring 7m x 20m, a small science laboratory and a garden, as well as being able to pave the rear playground. Right: The School Principal pictured with the MBE Evaluation Team leader, David Evans and MBE PACITAN: SBM Birds Nests at SD 3 Tulakan consultant Bpk Ferdy, the SDN 3 Tulakan, Pacitan is Head of Mlilir Village and the one of the MBE partner Head of the School schools. Even though it is a Committee in front of the mini- long way from the town, the science laboratory. teaching is comparable with Everyone involved in the school, the principal, teachers, students, committee schools in the town. You and parents group continue to make effort to increase their knowledge and could even say it’s better! experience. If we ask them about MBE they will answer: As well as the MBE program this school has also been Teacher: “I am proud and more self-confident. I can really help the students developing a life skills program, since it received a grant from and we teachers visit each others’ classrooms. When we receive visitors we the Broad Based Education (BBE) program in 2002. The are prepared and no longer confused.” school principal, teachers and committee are committed to developing excellence in making bird cages. Community: “Certainly proud, even though the school is in a village among rice fields we get lots of visits from the officials and even from Mr. Stuart and The school committee and craftsmen in the community Ms. Lynne. We understand now how difficult it is to teach and we pay much welcomed this and immediately became working partners. more attention to our children when they’re at home.” Each month the children’s work, which never amount to less than 25 bird cages using a variety of models, are ready to be Student: “We enjoy learning much more and we’re more active and not marketed. So what are the proceeds used for? bored. We are proud that our work is displayed in the classroom and other schools have asked to borrow it.” Proceeds are used to buy colored cardboard which is used for displays of children’s work and to support PAKEM teaching. As school principal, I am very grateful that, whereas before I was embarrassed when there were visitors in the school, now we are pleased to The school committee is of the opinion that PAKEM very much receive them. I have also had the honor of twice joining more experienced supports these life skill activities. facilitators from Pati in giving training in Nias. We were also entrusted with You are welcome to drop in at the school, especially if you receiving the MBE evaluation team, which visited us on 31 January 2007. need a bird cage……!!!! By Elmi Yahyi, school principal, SDN Mlilir 2 Ambarawa

15 SUKOHARJO: PAKEM 3 Training – Helping the Development of PACITAN: Multigrade Schools Working Group the School Syllabus There are five multigrade schools in Punung subdistrict. Since From 12 – 17 February 2007 the third round of PAKEM training took place in the Bupati (District Head) issued Edict No. 100/2004 each of Sukoharjo. Teachers and school principals from Sukoharjo and Kartasura the schools has been competing to implement multigrade subdistricts took the training very seriously. This was partly because of the teaching. The Subdistrict Education Office has had an Ministerial Instruction No. 19/2005 concerning the development of school important role in this process. The Head of the Office, Ibu syllabuses. As a result of the PAKEM 3 training the teachers and school Sriati Wulansih, S.Pd, has fully supported the implementation principals felt more confident in doing this. of multigrade teaching, although at the start there were protests from the schools. There has since been research by post-graduate students from UNS Surakarta University and the Head of the Office feels increasingly confident that this model of teaching can become an example for other schools.

Nganjuk District Government organized a study visit to Pacitan to observe the schools for themselves. A key step taken by Ibu Wulan, the Head of the Subdistrict Office was the introduction of a teachers working group (KKG) especially for the five multigrade schools in Punung subdistrict. The working group took place over two days and was just like a training Above left: Participants visiting other workshop. The second working group took place on 23 – 24 groups’ displays – in this case the early March 2007. The amount of material covered was almost the grades display same as that covered normally in three days training. Above: Ibu Dyah Ani, B. Indonesia facili- tator helping Ibu Listyani from SD Islam Al Hilal Kartasura to put up a display Left: Pak Bahren Ahmadi (standing on the right) and Pak Bambang from MIN Jetis Sukoharjo having discussions with school groups during a plenary session

SUKOHARJO: Dissemination Training Continuing Publicity concerning Ministerial Instruction No. 19/2005, which obliges teachers to implement PAKEM was received with enthusiasm by teachers and school principals, especially in primary schools in Sukoharjo district. They asked MBE to support a first round of PAKEM training in non partner schools. Three trainings to disseminate PAKEM have already taken place. Bp. Joko Sriono, S.Pd (center) helping the participants in the From 15 -17 December 2006 100 primary schools from outside the MBE training/working group partner subdistricts and two junior secondary schools in Sukoharjo subdistrict took part in training, which was financed by the district budget and included The material covered in these activities included a curriculum 135 teachers and school principals. scan, cooperative learning, writing a school syllabus and making lesson plans. Two district facilitators Joko Sriono, S.Pd and Sujarno supported a number of local facilitators from the

subdistrict in implementing the training.

Tips on Facing the National Exams in English Using PAKEM The National Exams for 2007 are due to take place soon. Many different

methods are used by Left: Pak Kris Budiyono, B. Indonesia facilitator helping participants display their work during the PAKEM dissemination training at SDN Gayam 3 Sukoharjo. teachers to ensure the Right: Pak Darno a participant in the PAKEM training doing teaching practice success of their students in using the environment as a learning resource passing these exams, remembering how important From 29 – 31 January 2007 seven Madrasahs (Islamic primary schools) from the exams are. The most Sukoharjo subdistrict took part in training financed by themselves and common strategy used is to involving 110 teachers and school principals. From 26 – 28 February it was the turn of Madrasahs in two other subdistricts, Weru and Tawangsari to give intensive coaching using questions from previous receive the PAKEM training again financed by themselves, this time at MI examinations or other similar questions. But it isn’t easy to do Muhammadiyah Watu Kelir, Weru. 150 teachers and school principals from something like that successfully, especially for students who 17 Madrasahs took part in the training. So for PAKEM has been are slow learners. This is because each question has its own disseminated to 410 teachers and school principals in 124 primary schools focus, so that the teacher has to explain each question and 50 teachers from three junior secondary schools, including SMPN 3 separately. This is very tiring. Tawangsari, which held its own PAKEM training in 2006.

16 As a result, English teachers from junior secondary schools in Madiun, PASURUAN: Showing off PAKEM in the Madrasah especially from MBE schools, got together to discuss everything to do with the Remarks frequently heard during training indicate that national examinations. teachers in madrasahs (Islamic schools) need special For reference we used the Standard Competencies for junior secondary attention. But during mentoring activities with the teachers it schools and Standard Operational Procedures on which to base our appears that these observations are incorrect. The conclusions. Our first conclusion was that most, if not all, of the questions in madrasah are very much aware that they urgently need to the final examinations for English are reading questions. Our second make changes in their teaching, if their students are to conclusion was, therefore, that the most important competency which the compete with those from other schools. This is the case at children have to master is reading competency. Based on these conclusions we drew up a reinforcement program covering what we felt were the main MI Negeri Mandaranrejo and MTs Nurul Islam (both MBE aspects of the material: Factual Information, Parts of Speech, Making schools) in Bugul Kidul the district. The two madrasahs have Inferences and Text Analysis. pioneered changes in the way they work. They have become innovators and are able to give an example to other Factual Information: Activities to find factual information start with identifying the subject and object of the sentences in a paragraph. Following on from this, madrasahs in this district, using the ideas which they have students make questions using wh-words, for which the answers should received during PAKEM training. These madrasahs are no include the subject and object already identified. A further development of this longer second class institutions but already the equals of could include questions using the word ‘how’and other variations. conventional public schools. There have been many Parts of Speech: These activities begin with asking students to make a list of changes in management and teaching. personal and possessive pronouns. They are then asked to find these pronouns in their reading material and to find what the words refer to. In this case the students are introduced to the phrases used to ask about the pronouns, such as “what does ‘it’ in line … refer to?” or “‘its’ in line … refer to?” etc. Making Inferences: To help them make inferences, the students are given questions which have to be answered by drawing conclusions from the text they were given. For this activity to be successful there needs to be reading Above left: Students in grade 2 material with a lot of implied information. measuring using Text Analysis: What is meant by text analysis in this case is naming the kind standard units of text, the purpose of the text and the different parts of the text. To teach this Below left: PAKEM the first step is to explain that every different kind of text has its own special teaching is already purpose. After this the students are given several texts and asked to determine the norm for the for what purpose the text has been written, based on the explanations that teachers at MIN received from the teacher. From this the students can determine the name of Mandaranrejo the kind of text. Following on from this, it is explained to the students that each kind of text has a different structure, for example ‘recount’texts consist of orientation, then sequence of events (event 1, event 2 etc.) The students are asked to identify the different parts of the texts they had been given. That is an account of what we are doing to prepare the students to face the final examination in English. We hope they will get good results. By Bambang Ari Sugianto, Teacher and English facilitator, Madiun

SUKOHARJO: Study Visits to Batu and Purbalingga One way to encourage the development of PAKEM, to increase community participation and improve the management of schools is by making study visits to other districts. On 22 and 24 December 2006 the MBE schools from Sukoharjo district took part in study visits to Batu. The first group from Sukoharjo subdistrict went on 22 December and the second group Above: Ibu Tatik, Ibu Sri Mulyaningsih, Pak Dwi from Kartasura subdistrict on 24 December. Wiyono, Ibu Hartinah, visiting the library at SDN Tulungrejo 1 Batu They were still not satisfied, so on 22 February 2007 the MBE primary schools from Kartasura Above right: Pak L. Madiyo (right) from SDN subdistrict made another study visit, this time Makamhaji 04 in discussing the teaching in the class with the grade 4 teacher from SDN 1 Kaliori using their own funds, to go to Purbalingga. Furthermore the study visit included all the non Right: The visitors from the primary schools in Kartasura subdistrict together with the teachers, MBE primary schools in Kartasura, who also school principal, committee and members of the paid their own way. parents group from SDN 1 Kaliori, Purbalingga

17 BANYUMAS: Improvements in the Parents Group Maria Ulfah: Primus Inter Pares The Grade 1 parents group at 1 SDN Pandansari in Ajibarang Story of an MBE Facilitator subdistrict Banyumas reformed its management in October 2006. It Is it possible to make a person primus inter pares, first among chose leaders and made a timetable of activities. To improve equals? Hard work, high level of commitment and a desire to do her management, the group added an administration system The system best for others are the three key factors that caused Maria Ulfah, an included an organizational structure, an attendance register and a MBE national facilitator for the early grades classes to be noticed and book for minutes of meetings. As a result, the activities of the group in entrusted with training teachers all over Indonesia and even in Sabah supporting the management and learning in Grade 1 have continued Malaysia. MBE, DBE, CLCC, UNESCO-UNICEF, World Vision to improve. Indonesia, ERA-AUSAID and Bpk Fasli Jalal, the Director General for Quality Assurance in Education are some of those who have asked Maria Ulfah to help them train teachers to teach using PAKEM. Maria Ulfah started in 1989 by working hard as a voluntary teacher for an early grades class with a wage of Rp. 7.500,- per month at a school, which was held in low regard by the community, since its graduates always got low rankings. The school was SDN Kebon Dalem in Mojosari subdistrict, Mojokerto. Without complaining about her very small wages, Maria stuck to her principles of working hard and doing her best for her students, always trying new things, not Above left: The administration books at 1 SDN Pandansari in Ajibarang afraid of making mistakes and always ready to learn from them. subdistrict. Above right: The rota of helpers from the parents group is displayed.

CENTRAL JAKARTA: We’re doing it too! The primary schools facilitators from Jakarta joined in an MBE Facilitators Consolidation Workshop for all districts from 4 – 7 March 2007. The group, which was accompanied by Bpk Suyoto, the Head of the Primary Schools Section, actively joined in the activities run by the MBE consultants.

In the end she met the presidents! Maria Ulfah (in the blue jacket) with the two presidents and their wives!

Her hard work was noticed by Stuart Weston in 2000 when he visited Maria Ulfah’s school, which was being used to try out PAKEM as part of the CLCC program. Having watched her teach, Stuart Weston invited Maria Ulfah to become a resource person in a workshop about Above: Talking to the team from Central Jakarta. They expressed their PAKEM in Bogor. This was the first time in her life that this voluntary wish to be able to do the same as the facilitators from other districts, who teacher had set foot outside her village. Even the school principal was have done more work in their own schools as well as working in other worried about her going and accompanied her to the bus station in districts. Bungurasih, Surabaya. In Bogor, Maria Ulfah learned more about how Below: Jakarta facilitators are doing their very best in their own schools to make even better lesson plans. and the results were displayed in the National Review Meeting in Salatiga. According to the Head of the Primary Schools Section the materials are After that, a new episode started in Maria Ulfah’s life. She now had to going to be used to disseminate innovations to the other classes in the work even harder, because she was asked many times to become a facilitators own schools first. When they feel ready and experienced guest speaker and trainer and was herself trained in many places in enough, they will start to work with other schools. Indonesia. As a result she gained much new knowledge and experience. Maria Ulfah tried everything out in her own class, so that what she was teaching and talking about during training was not much different from what she was doing in her class. The other teachers in her school noticed and learned from what she was doing, so that SDN Kebon Dalam has now become a school that is much visited by other schools from Java and elsewhere and the academic performance of the students is now something to be proud of. Although she has been giving training at national level, Maria Ulfah is still a simple teacher with voluntary status. For her the most important things are to work hard, give of your best for the children’s sake and, as for her status as a civil servant or voluntary teacher, that is for the Almighty to decide!

18 Evaluation of the MBE Program As reported on the front page and MBE evaluation team began work in the middle of January 2007 to evaluate the implementation and impact of the MBE program and to make recommendations to support future USAID activities. The team visited three districts in Central Java (Banyumas, Semarang and Pati), three districts in East Java (Batu, Malang and Probolinggo), as well as Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar. This is a report of the activities in a number of these districts. A summary of the evaluation report is included on page 20.

BANYUMAS At SDN Wonokerso 3 in Pakisaji subdistrict, Malang, the grade 5 students There’s a Big Man in the School!!! were able to ask David Evans to have The students at SDN 3 Kalisalak were their photos taken with him and many of surprised when the independent team came them asked more difficult questions – not to their school. just “what’s your name?” and “where do you come from?”. They asked about why As the end of the MBE program he was visiting the school, what he was approaches, an independent team visited doing with MBE and so on. several districts. One of them was Photo 5 shows the independent Banyumas. Their visit coincided with the first evaluation team, accompanied by the 1 day back in school after the holidays, 29 school principal, Ali Dinar Harahap, January 2007. The team divided into two to holding discussions with members of the visit each of the MBE assisted subdistricts, class parents group to find out what form Ajibarang and Kebasen. their activities take, as they support the educational processes in the school. In photo 1 David Evans can be seen The independent evaluation team was greeting the students at SDN 3 Kalisalak. very impressed with the impact of the Together with David Evans is Bpk Basri MBE program on the partner schools. The Wello. In photo 2 you can see Bpk Basri team was able to observe directly the high visiting a class at MI Bentul. At the time of level of involvement of the various the visit a member of the parents group was 2 stakeholders in raising the quality of helping in class. The members of the group education, including the school principals take turns in helping with the teaching. who were applying SBM democratically and transparently; the teachers were In photo 3 the independent team organizing the classrooms creatively and accompanied by Bpk Ferdy, an MBE constructively; the school committees and consultant are seen having discussions with parents groups were participating parents group members and a teacher from intensively in the learning process is; and SDN 3 Kalislak. the students were enthusiastic about learning. MALANG 3 PROBOLINGGO On 13 February 2007 the independent The information we received from the evaluation team visited Malang. Photo 4 4 evaluation team indicated that they were shows the leader of the team, David Evans very satisfied with the performance and watching a lesson in MI NU Wadung. Using success of the program in Probolinggo. PAKEM approaches, the grade 3 students They even recommended that other were confident enough to practice their USAID funded programs should English by talking to the native English implement programs similar to MBE. speaker who was visiting their school. ACEH Mr. David appeared very pleased at how Photo 6 was taken during the visit to active the students were in their lessons. Aceh. With Ibu Furaidah translating he said, “This is the first time I have seen a madrasah which is able to teach in this way. Furthermore, I am amazed how well the school management has been able to mobilize the community to help with the teaching in class.”

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19 Summary of the MBE evaluation report The draft report of the evaluation team was presented to representatives of the Coordinating Ministry for Social Affairs, Ministry of National Education, Ministry of Religious Affairs, USAID and other programs and donors, including the World Bank and ADB on 8 March in the Mandarin Hotel, Jakarta. Below is a shortened summary of the final report of the team. This is slightly different from the report in the Bahasa Indonesia version of Suara MBE which is based on an earlier draft of the report.

General Findings reviewed school budgets, developed performance standards, and assisted in Well positioned: The MBE is well aligned with the GOI developing additional revenue streams or in-kind assistance to assist in the decentralization policy and MONE/MORA strategic plans, implementation of the school development plan. By and large, the school especially in the areas of improving the quality of teaching and committee and the community leaders appeared to play a prominent and learning, increasing the involvement of local communities in useful role in the school. The willingness of community leaders and school schools, improved governance and accountability through the committee members to participate in meeting with the evaluation team, often strengthening of school committee capacity, and the increased on the basis of a last minute invitation, was impressive and a measure of availability of instructional materials. what high regard the MBE project is held in the communities. Dramatic Visible Change: For the most part, MBE-assisted Lessons Learned schools undergo a dramatic visible change in the physical characteristics of the Clear and Focused Conceptual Framework: The MBE has a very school. Although the clear and focused conceptual framework that the evaluation team found schools are not always was well understood by all stakeholders at all levels. This clear and in tip-top shape, the focused conceptual framework appears to be an important factor in the often old physical success of the program. infrastructure has been Well Sequenced and Coordinated Whole School Approach: It was spruced up with minor very clear to the evaluation team that the well sequenced and and sometimes major coordinated whole school approach adopted by MBE where teachers repairs frequently made are actively supported by the school principal, other teachers, and the by parents. Classrooms wider school community is instrumental in the effective implementation are often newly painted of student focused learning. in bright, light colors and many classrooms have become a Start Small and Build on Success: The MBE approach demonstrates showcase for student work and learning materials, one of the most very clearly the advantages of starting small and then building on striking impacts of the MBE program. success, both in the origins of CLCC and in MBE implementation itself. Energy and Enthusiasm: Although most teachers in MBE- Do what you do well: There has been a tendency in the past for donors assisted schools are not well-trained in the formal system and are and the GOI to maximize the number of schools that receive project not certified at the new GOI required level (S1), MBE-assisted interventions. A more effective approach, observed within the MBE schools show a marked increase in the amount of enthusiasm and experience and approach, is to limit the number of schools to ensure energy in the classroom. Most of the classrooms have been that the investment in individual schools is sufficient to facilitate a whole reorganized away from traditional seating into small work groups of school development and involve enough personnel to provide sufficient 4-6 students and teachers were often observed presiding over critical mass for a sustainable change. student-centered exercises. Some teachers lead classes using PAKEM Plateau: The MBE program’s most significant outcomes have been excellent, well-thought out active-learning exercises and in improving the classroom learning envir onments, with less spectacular techniques t hat might rival the best and most teachers appear to progress being made in improving teaching methodologies. In some classes be learning the methods recently introduced. observed the lessons were still largely didactic, while in others teachers were Improved School Management: With few exceptions, district able to implement the very best student-centered teaching practices. A more officials and school principals demonstrated good management focused classroom monitoring approach coupled with targeted training practice and a commitment to transparency and accountability. materials responding specifically to deficiencies in teaching methodologies Generally, principals had developed school strategic plans in concert may produce better results and might avoid the possible plateau that we may with a wide group of stakeholders and were reasonably articulate in be seeing in teaching methodologies. the short to long-term needs and priorities of the school. School budgets were nearly always displayed prominently. Some principals Conclusions exhibited fairly sophisticated knowledge of teacher evaluation The MBE project has had impressive impacts on district and school processes and incentives, teacher and school development needs, management, community involvemen t, and teaching and learning. and how to access resources for school improvement. Despite the very obvious impressive progress made by the MBE project, Very Active Parental Participation: Most schools appeared to there are a number of improvements in the MBE model that can be have parents and parent organizations that were very active in the made. These include: schools. The level of involvement varied widely with some parents ‰ Further improving teaching methodologies and learning resources, working as volunteer teacher-aids, repa iring or building especially advanced student questioning techniques, classroom classrooms, or providing nutritional supplements and teaching management, and student assessment; materials to the schools, while others simply cleaned the school rooms periodically. The parents appeared to be energized by the ‰ Further strengthening teacher and principal professional new attitudes of the teachers and principals and the focus on development that is school-based and performance-led; improving the quality of education within the school. ‰ Further strengthening and reinforcing school management practices Engaged School Committees and Community Leaders: In all but a by encouraging better management practices at the sub-district, very few schools, school committee members and community leaders district and provincial levels; were present and appeared to be actively involved in the management ‰ Further encouraging community participation by providing incentives and governance of the school. School committee members and to continued community involvement in schools; and community leaders provided input into school development plans, ‰ Further encouraging system-wide policy review and dialogue. 20 MAGELANG: PAKEM at the Science Teachers Working Group Examples of PAKEM Teaching Dissemination of PAKEM teaching in science in Magelang is taking place through the teachers working groups (MGMP) at town and school levels. BANYUMAS: Grade 1 Students Express Their Activities include: Feelings in Writing 1. Teaching PAKEM science lessons, which are not only orientated towards It is quite difficult to write about your feelings, but that is what active and enjoyable learning, but which also challenge the teacher to be the grade 1 students did at SDN Pandansari in Ajibarang innovative in developing teaching ideas. subdistrict, Banyumas. 2. Exchanging experiences about methods and teaching models being applied in Right: Leni Lisnawati, a grade different schools. 1 student at SDN Pandansari, has written her feelings about 3. Designing simple cheap and her mother in a simple and interesting learning activities, clear manner. using objects from the local environment.

4. Giving mentoring to help BANYUMAS: Simple and Useful Equipment teachers overcome diffi- culties. Science lessons using PAKEM methods at SDN 1 Kebasen, 5. Monitoring and evaluating one of the MBE schools in Kebasen subdistrict, Banyumas the implementation of encourage the students to make creative and useful end PAKEM. From classroom products. One of them was made by Andik, a grade 4 student, research activities, it appears who made a technological innovation in the form of a simple, that PAKEM teaching cheap and safe insect trap, increases students using waste materials. The understanding of the idea arose during three days concepts that are being camping activities with the taught and improves their scouts, in which students Top: Implementing PAKEM at the Science scores. from SDN 1 Kebasen took Teachers Working Group in Magelang part. Every night they were One activity implemented in the Above: Ibu Sri Puji Lestari helping the students science MGMP was real bitten by lots of mosquitoes. during the practical lesson on the dangers of teaching using innovative Pak Waluyo S.Pd, a science smoking PAKEM methods. This took teacher helped Andik to Below: Syringe used to discover the negative effects of smoking place at MTsN Magelang with design the apparatus. The Ibu Sri Puji Lestari. She made materials used included an use of an old syringe to explain old biscuit tin, an oil funnel, the dangers of smoking. Cotton a wooden support, a plastic Yusuf and Dias, grade 1 students at SDN 1 Kebasen, with the wool was placed inside the plate, a battery and case, insect trap they made syringe and the cigarette was cables, switch, a light bulb attached to the end. The and screws to fasten the pieces together. cigarette was lighted and the How it worked: the apparatus made use of the light from the syringe was pumped a few bulb to attract the insects, so that they fell into the funnel, times. What happened to the which was lubricated with cooking oil, and died. cotton wool? You can imagine what happened! The advantages of this apparatus included: could be used as a night light, while they were sleeping (two new batteries and By Imam Baihaqi, S.Pd, Teacher at SMPN 11 Magelang and Science Facilitator one old battery lasted two nights), there was no fire danger, it SITUBONDO: Simulating Circulation of the Blood didn’t interfere with breathing and was easy to carry around. Many roads lead to Rome……. This saying inspired Pak Vinsensius Tulam, a By Suyanto, S.Pd, School Principal of SDN 1 Kebasen, science teacher at one of the MBE partner schools. Banyumas and Primary Science Facilitator He was teaching about one of the functions of blood, which is to carry oxygen (O2) around the body. He developed an innovative simulation of the process. The students themselves moved round Left: A class discussion simulating the flow of blood carrying O2. with Pak Ven about the They set free the oxygen in the upper or circulation of blood to lower parts of the body and absorbed carry oxygen around the carbon dioxide (CO2). The CO2 was then body. set free in the lungs in order to take up Right: The students more O2. Then they circulated around the acting out the circulation body again. They did this until all the of blood carrying oxygen. students understood the circulation of blood to carry O2.

21 BATU: Number Games for Teaching Reading KEBUMEN: Despite BOS, Community Still Supportive Dra. Prihastutik, formerly a teacher at SDN Punten 1 in Bumiaji MI Ma’arif Banjarsari is subdistrict in Batu, has now become the School Principal at SDN one of the MBE partner Tulungrejo 3. This is the story of her innovative teaching and how she schools situated in achieved a perfect score of five in the 2006 national ‘Successful Gombong subdistrict. Teacher’ competition, which took place in Jakarta from 21 to 26 There are seven November 2006. teachers, including 2 Ibu Prihastutik said, civil servants and 5 “PAKEM, as it has been volunteer teach-ers. The developed in the MBE school has 74 students, program makes teachers which is relatively few. Above: The parents group at MI Banjarsari creative and try out Despite this MI Ma’arif who organized and took part in the school innovations. As a grade 1 Banjarsari is enthusia- leaving celebration for Grade 6 students.. teacher, I did some Class stic and is working hard Below: MI Banjarsari working with SMA Based Action Research to improve both in terms Maarif Gombong to renovate the school using number games. I of knowledge and building, proof of the community’s concern and active participation. wrote up the results under spiritually. It gets full the title ‘Improving the Early support from the sur- Reading and Writing Skills rounding community. of Grade 1 Students at SDN Now that schools get Punten 1, Batu by Using operational funding Number Games’. I sent the (BOS) from the govern- report to the Successful ment, MI Ma’arif can Teacher competition. breathe easily, although After three lessons using the funds do not cover number games there was a all its educational needs. significant improvement in As a result of good relations and cooperation between the madrasah the students’ performance. and the community, the school’s programs have been implemented As well as improvements in the students’ work, there successfully. The proof? was also a change in their 1. The parents group has given assistance in the form of labor, advice attitude during lessons. and transport to support student activities. That changes were (i) an 2. The Parents Group and the Head of the Foundation have played an increased interaction bet- active role from beginning to end in the accreditation of the ween groups; (ii) students madrasah by the District Office of Religious Affairs in Kebumen were more competent to with the result that the school received a ‘B’ranking. express their opinions; and 3. During the school leaving event for grade 6 students, the parents (iii) the children were able to present their work confidently in front of group organized everything, including forming a committee and the class. providing equipment, food and drink and documentation. The group Equipment and materials: The teacher made a set of number games, also made a donation of Rp.900,000 - from 10 parents to the which consisted of a sheet on which there were numbers, which had school. to be exchanged for letters and there were cards with numbers and letters on as follows: 1 = a, 2 = b, 3 = c, ..., 25 = y, 26 = z. "The closer relations are between the madrasah and the community, the stronger are the pillars of togetherness in the madrasah." (Evi How to play: In the first lesson: (1) The students played in a group. Faoziana, School Principal of Madrasah MI Ma’arif Banjarsari, The 5 students in each group got different tasks. One student did the Gombong). writing, one student called out the numbers and three students held the cards (26 cards shared between 3 students). The student called out a number and the students holding the cards had to find that KEBUMEN: Learning with a Wall Magazine in Ambal number and then say the letter. The student doing the writing wrote SDN Benerkulon in Am- down the letter on the game sheet. This continued until the game bal subdistrict, Kebumen sheet was full. Finally, the letters written on the game sheet were is an MBE partner school made into syllables, words and sentences. (2) Groups of children who that is implementing finished the game quickly and whose answers were correct were the PAKEM as a model of winners. The three best groups were chosen based on the amount of teaching. At the start, the time taken and the number of correct answers. (3) As a sign of school had lots of prob- recognition of their achievement, the best three groups were given a lems in implementing star. During the second and third lessons the students still sat in PAKEM. Facilitators and groups but worked as individuals. Each student was given a game consultants said, “Chang- Grade 6 students at SDN Benerkulon sheet without number-letter cards. So the students were required to ing everything is not as reading the wall magazine which they memorize the number-letter pairs. easy as turning over your made in groups hand” 22 Getting their children to express their opinion or their ideas or to Each member of the group wrote down the results of the number work in a group was like banging your head against a wall! operations, according to what they decided (multiplication, addition etc.). Perhaps these things were easy to implement for partner primary These activities often took place for five minutes after lessons have schools in the town or schools which were well advanced. But for finished. The results were great! The children were clever and quick at students in SDN Benerkulon these things were completely new carrying out the number operations. They did it as follows: and risky. But by making a very simple wall magazine, the children 1. The teacher uses a model of two cardboard gear wheels. working in groups and individually started to get enthusiastic, even 2. There were decimal numbers on the teeth and below the gap between though the results still aren’t all that great. The children’s the teeth enthusiasm has been motivated because their work has been 3. The gear wheels were engaged so that the number on a tooth on the judged by the students and teachers as good enough to be one wheel was next to the number in the gap between the teeth on the displayed on the wall magazine notice board at SDN Benerkulon. other wheel That is how we motivated our students to work, to express their 4. The children multiplied the two numbers opinions and ideas in order to support and achieve the basic competencies. 5. The students were asked to imagine that, if the two gear wheels were rotated in a particular direction, what would be the results of the By Suyanto, Teacher at SDN Benerkulon, Kebumen multiplication of the numbers on the two wheels? By Hariono, S.Pd, Teacher at SDN Tanjungtani 3 Prambon, Nganjuk MADIUN: Local Language Teachers use PAKEM and Mathematics Facilitator You can find interesting lessons going on at SMPN 6 Madiun. Ibu Budi Lestari gave a lesson in Javanese language where the SITUBONDO: Getting Inspiration from a Guest Speaker children had to make up short conversations of about five minutes. The classroom is not the The students worked in groups of three or four and they chose only place to learn, books varied topics, for example: voluntary work, looking after a sick are not the only source of friend and flooding. learning and writing an essay is no longer boring for students, who normally freeze when asked to write a sentence. SDN 8 1 Mimbaan, which is a simple

school, makes use of the environment as an enjoy- able learning resource. Besides being enjoyable, the lessons don’t use Above left: Ibu Budi Lestari, a local language teacher at SMPN 6 expensive resources and Madiun. She learned about PAKEM from training given by her school. encourage the students to

Above right: Diandra and Nova acting out their conversation which had take more care of their the title of ‘riding bikes together’. 2 environment.

Creating an Interest in Learning Mathematics

“Many roads lead to Rome”. That is the saying

the children at SDN Tanjungtani 3 in Prambon subdistrict, Nganjuk use to answer the question ‘why does mathematics scare so many people?’ But this doesn’t apply any more to the children 3 from SDN Tanjungtani 3. By playing with ‘gear wheels’ the children became clever and quick at adding and multiplying decimal numbers or any other kind of number operations you like to choose. Pak Hari gave each group a pair of gear wheels. The gear wheels had numbers on which operations were to be performed written on the teeth 5 4 and below the gap between the teeth. Each group put 1. Explaining how to do the tasks of identifying objects around the school and writing poetry together the gear wheels so 2. The school environment has become a learning resource, the group that the teeth in one wheel identifying and selecting objects engaged with the gaps An example of gear wheels 3. Students showing their ability: reading poetry in front of the class inscribed with decimal numbers between the teeth in the other 4. Displaying the students’ work wheel. 5. One of the best pieces of work

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VISIT BY INDONESIAN AND US PRESIDENTS TO DBE-MBE SITE

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1. President SBY as a grade 6 pupil? While Ibu Ani appears to be the teacher! 2. President Bush learning by doing PAKEM 3. The children and teachers of SD Papandayan 1 to- gether with the MBE and DBE facilitators, USAID and Sesame Indonesia 4. Bpk Taufan, the Principal of SD Papandayan 1 (stand- ing) together with the facilitators, USAID staff and other guests 5. In front of the hotel in Bogor 1 ready to depart for the palace

Suara MBE is published by RTI International with assistance from USAID Jakarta Stock Exchange Building, Tower 1, Floor 29, Jl. Jenderal Sudirman Kav. 52-3 Jakarta 12190 Indonesia Tel.: +62 21 5150260 Fax: +62 21 5150249 Email: [email protected], Website: mbeproject.net

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